selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

It seems to be a controversial topic. Link and additional information in the next post,

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

See the original discussion under Street Photography in Color

With reference to the image of the truck parked on the tundra:

Apaflo deleted my post. Later ...

That post was also deleted.

I am puzzled why Apaflo would claim that either post was "bullying". Just because I disagreed with him?

Help us out here. Can anyone come up with a definition of Street Photography that will satisfy Apaflo and everyone else?

BebuLamar

It's funny that Apaflo questioned whether those images are street photography. I can clearly see the street in a number of them and at least see the sidewalk 1n others.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Does all this mean that every "street" photograph must include an undetermined percentage of asphalt or concrete?

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

Well, I know Wikipedia isn't the authoritative source on any subject, but this is their definition:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography

DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

A photomImshoot on the street works for me.

Seriously, I think we get way too hung-up on stuff like this.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I would use a different term: "arbitrary".

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

From the same source: "Street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment." Whew, my photographs of snow-covered objects can stay.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

??? photomImshoot ??? Say what?

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

Wikipedia's alternate name works for me: candid photography. I guess "candid" doesn't resonate as well as "street." Hmmm?

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

It's good enough for me; as a matter of fact, I really like it. Now watch the naysayers come out of the cloud!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

But candid photography could be photos of family or friends, whereas we most commonly think of street photography as candid photos of people the photographer doesn't know in a public setting. But have also seen it defined more widely as any photo taken on the street, even without people. There is no official authority to make definitive definitions of genres of photography.

krl48 Loc: NY, PA now SC

Another bit of Wikipedia information: "The most famous opinion from Jacobellis, however, was Justice Potter Stewart's concurrence, holding that the Constitution protected all obscenity except "hard-core pornography." Stewart wrote, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

I, too, could never succeed in intelligibly defining street photography. That I know it when I see it is a totally subjective, personal point of view. YMMV.

Applied to the situation brought up by the OP, in my opinion, neither the lone truck on a country road nor the artwork on the walls meet my understanding of street photography.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Some get hung up.

Others might feel that those that get their knickers in a twist over it just might be wound a little too tight.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

The following are all true statements, but I have no intention of tying them together:

(0) Generally, I believe it is a waste of effort to get people to agree on a definition like this.

(1) Personally, I define "Street Photography" as photography that catches random people interacting normally with each other. This definition eliminates
* picture without people
* picture with essentially nothing but people
* picture in which most people are related somehow
* picture with no action
* posed picture

(2) I was one of those who supported Apaflo's effort to create Street Photography section

(3) In the past year, I have posted pictures in the Gallery and at FYC, but not in the Street Photography section

(4) I commonly describe my photography as being "Street Photography like". Back in the day, I would go out of my way to avoid having people in a picture I took, say of a train station; today, I often maneuver to get at least some kind of token action into a picture. I will probably spend tomorrow afternoon wandering around the campus of a college near here; their Physics Department sent out an understated announcement saying something like "the eclipse will happen regardless of what we do, but we thought we'd ..." - I have made zero preparation to photograph the sun, but I am hoping the weather will be good enough for me to photograph people observing the eclipse {I'm also hoping to see whether their squirrels are acting normally, but that is kind of a different order question}